Feedback for Strava's new maps (OpenStreetMap)

Strava is actively working with Mapbox (the open source mapping platform that supplies us with OpenStreetMap) to make sure we offer the best mapping experience for our athletes.

Mapbox gives us the opportunity to create customized maps that fit aesthetically and functionally with Strava. With open source data, errors or missing map assets can be fixed quickly and efficiently, creating the most detailed and robust maps for cycling and running. We believe in the potential and power of maps by OSM and we're focused on giving the Strava community the best experience possible.

Where did Street View go?

Mapbox does not provide Street View functionality at this time. We realize this functionality was valuable for some athletes; we'll do our best to re-incorporate it when possible.

August 14th, 2015:

We’re 100% committed to making Strava better for our athletes, and we hear you loud and clear regarding this switch from Google Maps to OSM. We didn’t anticipate how strongly some of our athletes would react to the change and apologize that it was a sudden disappointment to some of you. We could have done a better job explaining our reasoning and bracing you for the switch, handling the roll-out, taking more time to work with Mapbox, etc.

It may not seem like it now, but we believe deeply that changing to OSM is the best choice we can make for our athletes and our company. There is enormous potential and creative flexibility offered by the new maps and we ask that you stick with us and continue providing feedback as we bring that potential to fruition.

Your reports on the quality of the maps, such as missing map data and satellite image quality, can be addressed. We are working closely Mapbox, our OSM map provider, on both satellite imagery and road data and we’re invested in improving your experience. By providing specific examples of satellite and road data, we can act quickly to update the map data.

We've noted all your comments regarding street view, and understand how important it is to you. The top use for street view seems to center around segments, in viewing segment start and end coordinates as well as viewing the road surface and surroundings. Street view is still available when creating segments, and it may be possible to return street view to other areas of the segment experience. We will have more to share on this soon.

Our designers are compiling initial thoughts on how Strava can leverage certain styles, colors and shading to customize the map experience. We are already incorporating the existing feedback we’ve received here. Please continue to send us your feedback on how the look and feel of the maps can be improved.

- The Strava Team

August 21st, 2015:

When you visit a segment page, you can now click either endpoint of the segment to be brought to the street view for that location. Or, you can select one of the options from the map view menu (pictured below).

This addition is not meant to fully resolve your concerns about the switch to Mapbox. We're doing the best we can to respond to your feedback quickly while still maintaining our commitment to elevate your map experience with Mapbox. It's going to take time and we ask that you stick with us, and we'll continue to take your feedback to heart and iterate whenever possible.

September 2nd, 2015

We've just updated our maps to support four languages: English, French, German and Spanish. Now, if you're traveling or viewing the map in another country, you'll be able to see map labels and place names in your language.

How it works: If you have Strava set to one of the above four languages, you will see map labels in that language. For any other language that is not supported at this time, you will see the default map which displays regional language. To change your language preferences, use the menu at the bottom of any Strava page.

This map update also refreshes imagery for the Satellite map in select areas.

October 22nd, 2015

We're excited to announce updated maps in collaboration with Mapbox, featuring an intuitive display of map data and activity-specific styling. Designed especially with runners and cyclists in mind, we focused on a visual experience that would relay the map information we believe most helpful to our athletes:

Offset road labels for better visibility along activities

Visually distinct running and cycling paths

Highlighted pedestrian areas, outdoor areas, and parks

Vivid terrain styling and high-contrast mountain areas

Lower map label density for urban areas

Major highways and high-traffic roads de-prioritized in grey

Added points of interest most relevant to activity on Strava

Contour lines and elevation labels on satellite view

This is the first of several map projects we are working on as part of our ongoing goal to make your mapping experience on Strava more accurate, informative and rich.

My initial feelings about the map change were negative, however I've spent the last week using the new maps to plan routes, check segments, look at other athletes rides and monitor my own and I can confirm that my opinions have changed.

I initially thought the new maps were an inconvenience and that Strava's handling of the issue was poor. Now I my opinion is that the new maps are a complete and utter disaster that has fundamentally ruined my user experience and that Strava's incredible ineptitude and arrogance demonstrates a lack of customer service that boarders on the suicidal. I never questioned my Premium Membership before and never once looked around for another service to manage my training. Suddenly I am actively doing both. Shocking Elle Anderson, really shocking.

Strava you have made an absolutely disaterous decision to change to OSM. I can no longer use Strava the way I need to use it, you are now providing me with an inferior product but taking the same money from me.

Reading the comments it only seems to be the MTB'rs are happy and this may be a reason for the switch, to increase membership of the MTB community as well as the financial savings to be made. To do this though to the detriment of the vast majority of it's existing users is wholly unacceptable.

The complete lack of response from Strava, other than to address some 'easy' issues (map colours and pinch/zoom) shows a total lack of respect for their customers.

I was just about to suggest that Strava use OSM as a selectable map layer, when I found this thread! I haven't seen the results yet but it's a great idea. Google maps are rubbish, seriously out-of-date - sometimes by years, and there is very little off-road detail. OSM is user editable, like Wikipedia, and I often update it with paths and tracks. Well done Strava!

I've removed the auto-renewal for my Strava Premium subscription. Sadly it seems that Strava management are not willing to provide adequate messaging about a massive change like this. Coupled with the API debacle of last year (or the year before?) it seems apparent that Strava are no longer listening to their users. I had the premium subscription mostly out of loyalty and to support Strava, not particularly for the features it adds - I get (more) powerful training features from TrainingPeaks.

For me, the problem is not (necessarily) the change to OSM, it's the lack of transparency about the change.

“scroll wheel to work for zooming” Oh FFS! Can’t you just turn it off for Mac users with trackpads? Scrollwheel to zoom a train wreck of usability. I’m either looking at someones back garden or accidentally viewing all continents at the same time.

This may have already been covered but I just discovered it today. Zooming in on satellite view, some areas have higher resolution than others. This can lead to something like the attached screen shot, where half the map shows detail and half the map is black. Needless to say, this was not an issue with Google.

I like it, OSM is much better suited for outdoors activities than the car focused google maps (yes, it's sufficient if you only use it for road biking) and I don't know from where MapBox gets its satellite images, but in my area it's even a little bit sharper then googles.

the contour lines are easier to detect on the new maps than on google-maps with "terrain", but to find your way, or to find the start of a segment became much more difficult, no powerful zooming and, and no street-view! Plus: Google Maps switches language, depending on the language of your browser, you can have the map in Chinese or Japanese - or display the place and street-names in transcription. That seems impossible now... disappointed!

Street view was real important to my enjoyment of Strava. At 60 years old I don’t have the stamina of the younger riders but still have hung onto a good burst of power. Street view let me know when to start and stop a segment. Too bad its gone. Is the new audio/visual alert feature a free or premium only option? Thanks for all the fun you have given me as a road cyclist!

Just to let you know , I'm a mountain biker and I am not happy either , as a matter of fact street view never was a concern of mine , because I do not ride street . I can not even see the trails any more to help me plan a route through the more than 20 miles of trails . No double right click zoom out , any more . One shining light is that Garmin Connect still uses Google maps and all most all the features I like about Strava is there , except for Strava Segments .

You guys are so bad at this sometimes. Why get rid of a feature so many of your users use without thinking about this in advance? Why not wait until your new map provider has a street view option? Strava feels somewhat unusable now...especially the route function...what a waste.

I am a Premium Strava user and all of my route planning has moved to Ride w/ GPS which still uses Google Maps (street view). They also have elevation encoded in their routes which renders GPX files suitable for indoor VR trainers (tacx etc). Please bring Streetview back and add elevation data.

Strava Team, thank you for adding OSM. I really appreciate you taking a stand and selecting a provider of free, open source maps. In addition, user driven systems like OSM is IMHO far better suited for a tool such as Strava. Coupled with map rendering of bike-specific features in OSM, it is matched by nothing Google can throw at it.

I look forward to seeing how further enhancements turn out, and I hope you continue to work and support the OSM Foundation (See their latest fundraiser for new hardware!)

I was considering leaving my premium account last year. After this upgrade, I will definitely stay on board.

To slightly rephrase/re-frame Strava’s response to us thus far: “The officers of the Titanic have heard your concerns about possible icebergs and rest assured, we’re considering them carefully and will respond to you soon. But regarding some other questions, we are delighted to report that we’ve lubricated that squeaky door on the Lido deck and have designed a tremendous new arrangement for the deck chairs that we think you’ll just love”

This is not directed personally at Elle I want to state, I’m sure she is just carrying out company decided policy and messaging. But if I taught a course in Corporate PR or Customer Relations, I would most definitely cite this as a case study of what not to do at every turn. It is stunning in 2015 to have a company that is this completely clueless, to say nothing of one that is tech based.

I certainly feel for the premium users, but if you are a non-premium user, don’t think of yourself as a freeloader with no status to complain. Your membership, site visits, uploads etc are all valuable to Strava and monetized by them. If you are pissed off enough, you certainly can and should consider voting with your presence just like premium subscribers vote with their money. If you are happy with the change, by all means, keep being happy, or course. But if you’re not, do something about it! Don’t think your use patterns and cranky Facebook posts or tweets #WowhowlameisStrava? or whatever don’t matter.

I continue to hold hope that Strava will come to their senses and have not yet deleted my account, but I have ceased uploading to Strava for the time being. If enough of us do so, perhaps they’ll get the message. But if they fail to intelligently respond to this whole crisis of their own making, I’m done and will dump the whole thing. I have no interest in supporting and helping make money for this company any longer.

Though the Google vs OSM issue and functionality is certainly the starting point for me, as large an issue is the manner in which this has been handled - same as many others have pointed out here. We’re not ‘haters’ or ‘whiners’, we’re fans and customers, that’s why we were here in the first place. Strava have dug themselves a big hole, the question is if they keep digging as they seem to be, or if they finally start to climb out.

In all seriousness, how much extra would one have to pay to have google maps re-integrated to their account? Not being able to Street View parts of rides of professionals and amateurs who I follow from around the world is a MAJOR let down.

Personally, I saw it as an asset for Strava to have so many pro's willing to share their race and training routes. Not sure why you guys don't value this as well.

The lack of Street View is really frustrating me. A group of cyclists that I follow and occasionally ride with did a new route today and while viewing the ride I kept wanting to Street View some of the segments they rode. Obviously I couldn't and I quickly tired of typing addresses into Google Maps and then trying to match up the start and end points of the segments. If I hadn't renewed for a year, I think I'd actually go back to the free plan. It's that annoying.

I used to review Strava on my iPad in the evening. It no longer works. I can zoom in one click and then the map freezes. Panning doesn't work nor zooming.

For those of you hoping OSM will ever provide streetview, I wouldn't hold your breath. Providing streetview is an expensive proposition and takes significant effort and investment. Not something that lends itself to being community driven. I suspect eventually Strava will add back Google maps as an option, perhaps bundled with premium or for an additional smaller fee.

A few more improvements - keep going...
If you change map style on maximum zoom the map doe snot redraw until you zoom out on level. Don't know if this was an issue with Google Maps of couse.
Really need road classification colours back.

Like Greg says, zoom and pan are broken in Safari on iPad. Also, segment details no longer show when I tap on a segment in the activity page. So no judgement on the OSM maps from me , as I simply can't see most of them.

As a premium member where is my choice to turn back on google maps? Trying to plan a route on OSM is impossible, in some areas three different maps blending together, I zoom in and get a blackcross no imagery available??? Examples attached of fully zoomable google versus OSM...

"Unfortunately, Google maps will not be returning to Strava even as an "on/off" toggle. We're focusing on the road ahead and giving the Strava community the best experience we can with OpenStreetMap. "

As per my screenshots, I strongly disagree I now have the best experience, I now have a vastly inferior product. A toggle really is needed, particularly for Premium members..

Ps. another bug when you go full screen with OSM, the ascension table appears top left of screen and hides +/- button making it difficult to zoom, and sometimes disables mouse wheel zoom.